John Vella, executive vice president of portfolio servicing strategies for Residential Capital Corp. (ResCap), has resigned from the company, effective immediately, according to a memo provided to National Mortgage News.
At press time, the GMAC-owned ResCap could not be reached for comment. According to a memo from GMAC mortgage chairman Tom Marano, Vella's duties will be given over to chief servicing officer Joe Pensabene.
Vella joined the nation's sixth largest residential servicer in the fall of 2008. In his memo, Marano said, "John provided leadership for our mortgage employees in Dallas, Carlsbad and Costa Mesa during a time of considerable change as we sought to reduce costs, and restructure and refocus our operations."
Last month, ASR sister publication National Mortgage News reported on the departure of about eight servicing managers at ResCap.
In other ResCap news, GMAC Financial Services has agreed to sell its European mortgage assets -- including performing and nonperforming loans -- to Fortress Investment Group, a company managed by former Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd.
No price was disclosed. A spokesman for GMAC said Fortress will take control of active lending units of ResCap in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
At press time no information was available on the production or servicing volume of these divisions. Fortress is also taking title to 6,000 whole loans of GMAC/ResCap but no dollar amount was provided.
The sale of its European assets is the latest move by GMAC to divest its exposure in residential finance in favor of auto lending.
Its U.S. mortgage operation is currently on the auction block, though it remains to be seen who might buy it. Mudd currently serves as CEO of Fortress, a publicly traded equity fund and investment manager. He was fired by the government as CEO of Fannie Mae when it took control of the GSE in the fall of 2008.
In a statement, GMAC said, "The agreements to sell the European mortgage assets and businesses are key steps toward our objective of reducing the ongoing exposure for GMAC from the legacy mortgage operation. This is a significant achievement and will contribute in putting GMAC on a path toward improved performance."
